Over the last decades, the problem of accidentally moving living organisms in the ballast water of ships from one biotope to another in our oceans has been accentuated. Therefore, different solutions for treating the ballast water, to deactivate those organisms, have been suggested. Using UV-light to damage the DNA of the organism in question is a method widely used.
In a ballast water treatment system comprising UV-light reactors with UV-lamps, the glass tubes or quartz sleeves surrounding the area surrounding the UV-lamps get contaminated from sea substances and dead organisms during the ballast water treatment process. Thus, the performance of the UV-reactor decreases during this process and therefore, the deactivation of organisms in the ballast water is jeopardized.
Usually, this is taken care of by a cleaning system, a so called CIP-system (Cleaning in place), which intermittently during a stand-still in the operation of the reactor to be cleaned, circulates a liquid cleaning medium through the system, and the reactor in particular. The cleaning medium is usually a mixture of water and a cleaning liquid in a suitable concentration.
Cleaning systems according to the background art use a large tank in which the cleaning medium is mixed and at intervals used as described above.
In the shipping industry of today, it is vital that space that can be used for cargo purposes is not used up unnecessarily. Therefore, it is important to also build the ballast water treatment systems as compact as possible.